Kids say the darnedest things.

So tonight Bordeeeen and I judged a high school science fair. Your thoughts right now (ie, "La? Judging a science fair?? What does she know about science? She almost failed "How Things Work" in college.") are warranted. Your laughter at the thought, not so much.

Let's just say these kids are pretty damn smart. I mean, the projects they did were amazing. I'll admit it--some of them I didn't even understand. One group of kids built a photometer from scratch to measure atmospheric haze. Yeah, I didn't know what a photometer was, either (it measures sunlight to see if it can penetrate through the pollution or something.). One kid did something with metal and WiFi and used some extensive algebraic formula to figure out decibels. He also goes to some network engineering academy in his spare time and explained the project of the kids next to him (who failed to show up for the fair).

Back in the day, science projects were about "planting" lentils on beds of cotton, in pots of soil and on rocks and seeing which was a better medium (cotton, in case you're wondering). Or soaking extracted teeth (not your own, silly, you ask the dentist for them) in coke, milk and water to see what happened to them (you'd think that, after learning at a young age that coke was not good for your teeth, I would've gotten scared and stopped drinking it. Yeah, whatev.). I used to make graphs using graph paper and colored pencil. Now projects are about real science and having your project have an impact. I used to do projects to get the job done and get the grade. Now kids do projects to learn and teach others. Wow.

So, needless to say, I learned a lot today. I learned about photometers and atmospheric haze. I learned that metal blocks wireless signals (I think?), I learned that you can buy bags of ladybugs online (not at the pet store), that they eat apples, grapes and bananas and if you keep them in constant fluorescent light locked in a closet they don't grow as much as if you keep them in natural light. I learned that you can make a bugle out of a garden hose and a funnel and that, the longer the garden hose, the lower the notes you will be able to register.

I also learned that I'm not good at addition(those are some pesky score sheets!), that people twelve years younger than I am know they're twelve years younger than I am ("No, those ladies are judges, I bet."), that kids today are innovative, intuitive and really articulate and that I am a discerning judge (well, at least a little bit discerning.). This will come in handy next month, when Bordeeeen and I return to said high school for their annual Mr./Ms. [name of high school] competition. Now that will be right up my alley.